


Did you know the sparrow flies south for winter?

by KaskardenFluvia



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Death, Gen, I can't even, I wrote this before TDOTL, So much angst, Valduggery only as lifelong friends that can't live without each other, What could have happened in TDOTL, why did I write this I'm awful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-20
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-21 23:44:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2486684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaskardenFluvia/pseuds/KaskardenFluvia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darquesse is back and Skulduggery has one chance to get his Valkyrie back.</p>
<p>So, I wrote this before I read TDOTL, so it's just something that I thought was possible after I read LSODM</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Did you know the sparrow flies south for the winter?

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's kind of stupid to publish this several months after TODTL was published, but I don't care.  
> Also the english might be a little bit messed up sometimes.

She was just hovering in the air and looked down on them. Her black hair fluttered in the wind. She was still dressed as a Bride of Blood Tears, the cold air obviously not bothering her  
Skulduggery looked at Darquesse, who turned her head and looked at them. She waved happily and flew towards them, until she was only a few metres away. Skulduggery and the other sorcerers were standing on Roarhaven's city wall. They had waited for her to show up for a few days now, Skulduggery not leaving his observation point once.  
“Hello Skulduggery”, Darquesse said and smiled at him, using Valkyries's face.  
“I'll give you one chance.”, he grunted, “Give Valkyrie back, or I'll kill you.  
The black-haired girl laughed and looked at him.  
“You're not really into small talk, are you? Well, it seems like you just don't understand. I _am_ Valkyrie.” Her smile widened.  
“You're not her. Because the Valkyrie I know, she wouldn't let you win. The Valkyrie I know, the Valkyrie I _love_ would fight.”, he exclaimed. He was so angry. So Angry at the psychopath who stole his best friend's body and was now using it.  
“But the Valkyrie you know is gone.”, she answered, grinning. “She gave up and faded away. Now I'm in charge. I'm the better Valkyrie.”  
“Well in that case.”, the skeleton muttered. “I'm going to kill you.” He took out his revolver and pointed at the girl still hovering in front of him.  
“Because you may look like Valkyrie, and you may have her voice, but you're not her. As you said, my Valkyrie is gone. You killed her and now you are using her body.”  
Darquesse grinned and suddenly her hands were filled with black fire.  
“Then I sadly have to kill you first. Any famous last words, skeleton detective? 'Until the end', maybe? I thought you would like to say that.”  
Skulduggery placed his finger on the trigger.  
“Valkyrie if you're in there, somewhere, and I hope that you're in there somewhere. _Did you know the sparrows fly south for winter?_ ” His voice broke and he pulled the trigger. He shot the girl right in the heart. Darquesse laughed and pressed one hand against her chest.  
“Stupid man. That won't kill me, you know that? I can easily heal that. It doesn't even hurt.”  
One hand still pressed against her chest she raised her other hand, which still burning with black fire and was about to throw it at the skeleton who tanding on the wall, when her eyes suddenly went wide and the fire extinguished. She looked at Skulduggery and let out a small and genuine smile, before she started to fall down. Skulduggery reached out and caught her with the air.  
He dragged the girl towards him and held her up when her feet touched the ground. She looked up at him.  
“She wasn't able to heal the whole heart.”, Valkyrie whispered, pain in her voice.  
“It's going to be OK, Valkyrie.”, Skulduggery answered silently and turned his head to the side.  
“Get Nye. Now.”, he shouted at the other sorcerers, who were just staring at him and Valkyrie.  
He felt how Valkyries knees gave in and knelt down with her. She had one arm wrapped around his neck, the other one was still pressed flat against her chest.  
“It hurts so much.”, she winced and looked at Skulduggery. Her dark eyes were filled with tears. He had one arm around her waist, holding her up. His other hand was lying on her cheek, he could fear the warmth of her face through his glove.  
“Everything is going to be OK.”, he whispered and dragged her a bit closer. “You'll be fine Valkyrie. You'll be fine.”  
“It's so cold.”, Valkyrie whispered and rested her head on his collarbone. His hand was now on the back of her head, gently stroking her hair. He could hear her silent cries, could feel her struggling heartbeat.  
“It would be so easy.”, she breathed, talking to herself. Skulduggery put his hand under her chin and made her look at him.  
“Don't give up Valkyrie. Please don't give up now.”, he begged, his voice desperate. Valkyrie tried to nod, but she was too weak. Again she rested her head on his collarbone. She closed her eyes.  
“Where is Nye? We need it!”, he shouted, anger mixing with the desperation in his voice.  
He felt her heart getting weaker, could feel her skin getting colder. Her face was quickly loosing colour. His suit was soaked in her blood. It was too much blood.  
“At least I'll die as myself.”, she whispered against his chest and then a sigh of relief left her lips as she went limp in his arms.


	2. I'm sorry I couldn't save you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wrote the first chapter of this over 2 years ago after finished LSODM. I uploaded this last year and today I thought "Hey why not write a super sad sequel to this?" and yeah that's what I did.  
> As always, the English might be a bit messed up, especially because I kinda cried while writing this and yeah you've been warned

He carried the hearse alongside Dexter, Saracen and Fletcher. It was black, she would have wanted it this way.  
Fletcher was sobbing behind him, he hadn't stopped crying since China told him that Valkyrie was dead. Skulduggery envied him. If he had been able too, he wouldn't stop crying either. Maybe it would have made everything easier. Maybe it would have left him feeling less guilty for not saving her. But he couldn't cry, couldn't show any emotion at all. The only person who would have been able to tell that he was heartbroken was lying in the hearse he was slowly carrying through the graveyard.  
They arrived at the empty grave. They put the hearse down on the table in front of it.  
Skulduggery looked around, studying the faces of the guests. There weren't much people around.  
China, dressed in a black dress, a sad look on her face. Her eyes were red, as if she'd been crying but even now she was still beautiful. Next to her were the monster hunters, both of them dressed in black suits. Fletcher stood next to him, still sobbing, tears still flowing freely. His whole body screamed grief, even his hair, usually ridiculously styled seemed to be mourning.  
Dexter and Saracen took place next to him. They were also dressed in black. Dexter was wiping his face with his hand, while Saracen was just staring at nothing.  
There was no one else there, he hadn't invited Stephanie, he couldn't be around her right now. She made everything worse.  
Skulduggery went over and stood next to China.  
Silence fell over the graveyard.  
Finally China spoke up.  
“Would someone like to say something?”, her voice unusually quiet. Fletcher was the first to step forward.  
“Valkyrie was my first love.”, he started, taking shaky breaths. “I was devastated when we broke up, but even after that we were still friends. Kind of. We still helped each other and-”, his voice broke, but he pulled himself together again, “and I still loved her in some way. I can't believe she's dead. I just can't believe she is actually gone this time.”  
He started crying again and quickly went back to his place.  
The next one to speak was China. Her voice was quiet but firm  
“When I first met Valkyrie, I wasn't that interested in her. She was just some twelve year old girl, who followed Skulduggery around. But she quickly became one of the first friends I had in a long time. I'm going to miss her. I'm going to miss her so much.”  
There were tears falling out of her eyes. It was probably the first time Skulduggery saw China cry.  
Donegan and Gracious went up to the hearse together.  
“Both of is didn't know Valkyrie that much, but she was always funny.”, Gracious said.  
“It's a shame that we won't get to know her better.”, Donegan added and they went back to their place.  
Saracen and Dexter also went together.  
“Valkyrie was an amazing person. She was funny and charming. She was an amazing fighter, too. She went through so much, but she always stayed strong and never gave up easily.”, Saracen started. He looked down on his shoes. Dexter wiped his face again and took a deep breath.  
“She was an amazing person. I'm going to miss the way she always marvelled my muscles.”, he added and everyone laughed a sad laugh. Only Skulduggery stayed silent, as he had the whole day. Dexter and Saracen went back. Once again everything was silent.  
Skulduggery knew it was his turn to talk now, to say how much Valkyrie meant to him and how much he was going to miss her, but he couldn't speak. He didn't know how to put his emotions into words anyway. Even when China gently pushed him, he just went up to the hearse and stood next to it, frozen in place. He place a hand on the black wood and just stayed this way. He was unable to speak unable to tell how guilty he felt for not being able to save his best friend. It felt like his ability to talk died with the girl in the hearse. He could hear shuffling behind him, the others were getting uneasy.  
Somehow he managed to take off his hat, one of his favourites and the one Valkyrie's always tried to steal from him. He gently placed it on top of the hearse. He wanted to say that he was sorry, but the words just wouldn't come out.  
He stared at his hat, lying on top of the casket, once again frozen in place until Dexter and Saracen went up to him, to lower the hearse into the empty hole in the ground. Skulduggery just watched them, unable to move and help them.  
When they were finished, everyone went up to the grave, to take one last look at the casket, to say some last words of farewell, before the hole would be closed forever. Again, he didn't speak. He only waved his hand once everyone was finished and closed the hole. His hat vanished together with the hearse and the girl inside, buried and the earth.  
China bent down and placed a flat stone on top of the soil. She had wrote an epitaph onto it.

_In loving memory of Valkyrie Cain,  
who fought until the end. _

She had also scratched a symbol into the stone, that made the words glow when she tapped it with her finger. She righted herself again.  
Once again they stood in silence, everyone lost in his own thoughts.  
Donegan and Gracious where the first to go and Fletcher quickly followed them. Dexter and Saracen stayed a little longer before also turning their back on the grave and slowly walking away.  
Now China and Skulduggery were the only ones left. She softly put a hand on his shoulder.  
“Are you going to be ok?”, she asked carefully and he just nodded. It was a lie though. He would never be okay again and China probably knew that. Yet she said nothing, she just put her hand away and left him alone.  
“I'm sorry I couldn't save you.”, he finally said. His voice was broken, nothing but grief in it. He almost didn't recognise it.  
“Valkyrie, I'm so sorry.”, he said again. He felt empty inside and he could feel the darkness tugging at him. He bent down and tapped against the symbol and the words on the gravestone stopped glowing.

Skulduggery Pleasant took one last look as his best friend's grave.

He turned around...

...and Lord Vile walked away from the grave without looking back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry, I know I'm an awful human being but this just kinda happened and I have very strong feelings about it and I need to share this.

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously this fic made me think I was a fortune teller for a moment because the phrase was actually used similar to this in the book.  
> I screamed tbh  
> Edit: I felt like editing this and now I'm probably going to write a sequel and then I'm going to cry over my own work again


End file.
